Field evaluation of manual spreading of farm yard manure

Manual spreading of farm yard manure in the field is widely practiced method of application of organic manure in India. The manual broadcasting method of spreading the farm yard manure was evaluated at farmers’ field. The application rate, manure delivery rate and uniformity of distribution of application of farm yard manure were determined. The application rate varied with farmer to farmer and depended on many uncontrollable factors, like skill and expertise of farmer, availability of manure with the farmer etc. It was not possible with this method to control application rate precisely. The application rate varied between 5.7-11.9 t/ha. Uniformity of distribution of application of manure was found to be low and varied between 48.14-59.23%. The cost of operation and labor requirement was found to be varying between Rs 1952-4280/ha and 78-171mh/ha respectively.The operation was found to be labor intensive and tiresome involving human drudgery.